And held the sun was but a piece
Of red-hot iron as big as Greece;[1] 740
Believ'd the heav'ns were made of stone,
Because the sun had voided one;[2]
And, rather than lie would recant
Th' opinion, suffer'd banishment.
But what, alas! is it to us, 745
Whether i' th' moon, men thus or thus
Do eat their porridge, cut their corns,
Or whether they have tails or horns?
What trade from thence can you advance,
But what we nearer have from France? 750
What can our travellers bring home,
That is not to be learnt at Rome?
What politics, or strange opinions,
That are not in our own dominions?
What science can be brought from thence, 755
In which we do not here commence?
What revelations, or religions,
That are not in our native regions?
Are sweating-lanterns,[3] or screen-fans,
Made better there than they're in France? 760
Or do they teach to sing and play,
O' th' guitar there a newer way?
Can they make plays there, that shall fit
The public humour with less wit?
- ↑ In Butler's Remains we read
For the ancients only took it for a piece
Of red-hot iron, as big as Peloponese.
Alluding to one of the notions about the moon, attributed, no doubt falsely, to Anaxagoras. See his Life in Diogenes Laertius (Bohn's edit. p. 59, et seq.). - ↑ Anaxagoras had foretold that a large stone would fall from heaven, and it was supposed to have been found soon afterwards near Ægospotamos. The fall of the stone is recorded in the Arundelian marbles.
- ↑ These lanterns, as the poet calls them, were boxes, wherein the whole body was placed, together with a lamp. They were used by quacks, in a certain disease, to bring on perspiration. See Swift's Works, vol. vi. Pethox the Great, v. 56, Hawkesworth's edition. Screen fans were used to shade the eyes from the fire, and commonly hung by the side of the chimney; sometimes ladies carried them along with them: they were made of ornamented leather, paper, straw, or feathers.
